Association of COVID-19-imposed lockdown and online searches for toothache in Iran.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has impacted populations in many ways worldwide, including access to oral health services. This study aims to assess the association between lockdown due to COVID-19 and online searches for toothache in Iran using Google Trends (GT).

Methods

We investigated GT online searches for toothache within the past five years. The time frame for data gathering was considered as the initiation and end dates of the national lockdown in Iran. We performed one-way ANOVA statistical test to compare relative search volumes (RSVs) between the year 2020 and 2016-2019 for the whole country. Then we investigated the possible association of RSVs in provinces with dentists' density, prevalence of current daily smokers, Human Development Index (

SUBMITTER: Sofi-Mahmudi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7883957 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature